BamBams

This happened to me 2 weeks ago! It was sunny day and I'm on my way to work at the gun shop in Colorado Springs in a borrowed Volvo since my pick-up is getting an engine replaced. I approach a construction zone where the speed drops, abruptly, from 55 to 35mph. I'm trying to slow down, but the Volvo's brake rotors are glazed over and squealing like a Banshee. The next thing I know, the Colorado State Trooper is right on my butt and waiting for a safe place to pull me over. Here come the flashing lights. Well, the first thing he wants to know is why I'm not wearing my seatbelt. I HATE seatbeats, but I don't answer his question since I don't have to. Now he asks for my license, registration, and proof of insurance. He notices the stainless Kimber on my belt and freaks out. "Why do you have a gun?" I decided he needed to be calmed down, even though I am not required to answer that question either. I say, "Two reasons: I work in a gun shop and it's for personal protection." Then he asks me, "Is it REGISTERED in your name?" I reply with, "Colorado does not require firearms registration." He then asks, "Oh well, but are you the OWNER this gun?" I say "Yes." He then asks, "Do you have a PERMIT for this gun?" I reply, "Yes I sure do." Colorado does NOT require a permit for open carry of a firearm, NOR does it require a permit for having a loaded firearm in one's vehicle. He then asks me to slowly exit the vehicle, keeping my hands away from the gun, and to place my hands on the hood of the car." At this point, he removes the Kimber from my holster and takes it over to the patrol car where he proceeds to remove a cartridge from the chamber and remove the magazine. He then leaves my Kimber in his car, and returns to me. "Please give me your license and your concealed carry permit. I comply. Then he asks me to get back inside my vehicle. 25 minutes later he returns with my paperwork and my magazine. He asks me to place the magazine in my glove box "for now." He apologizes that I had to wait so long, and tells me the reason was that my CWP is not in the computer, so my Sheriff's office had to be contacted to confirm the validity of my permit. He then has the nerve to say, "I advise you to contact your Sheriff as soon as possible and request that your permit information be entered into the DATABASE because you just made a police officer VERY nervous." I didn't tell him that my Sheriff's office does not maintain a networked database of permit holders and refuses to do so. Then he hands me my ticket and says, "Since you didn't try to lie about wearing your seatbelt, I'm going to forego the speeding ticket and just issue you one for not wearing a seatbelt." Well heck, I am not quite so sure I was speeding anyway! The last thing I remember was being totally aware of the need to slow down as rapidly as possible. Anyway folks.....I just needed to vent. This whole thing really pissed me off.

Dang! It's not the extractor at all. I even changed out the factory one with a brand new Wilson. Now it boils down to this: Random cartridges are tipping to the left upon entering the chamber. UPDATE 3:35 AM: Okay. It's fixed. Just cycled 200 rounds flawlessly. Guess what it was? The LAST thing I would have thought. The contour of the factory throat job! Yup. On the left side of the throat (looking down the chamber) the contour wasn't right to enable smooth feeding of my SWCs. They stopped a tad bit too south when they throated the barrel....leaving just the perfect little "edge" to grab a cartridge case by it's mouth and yank it over left. Now before you go crazy on me. The tail of the last FTF never even made it up to the extractor, then I KNEW I had to look elsewhere. I polished it down just a hair with a cratex bit....and the rest is history. I'm going shooting today! OR maybe I should fix that grip safety first? And yes, I always talk to myself like this. *big grin*

Okay....more info now..... I was able to duplicate the problem, twice, by hand cycling quite a few cartridges. The damage to the case mouth is actually at the 9:00 position. What is happening is that the cartridge (looking down through the ejection port) is tipping to the left and the mouth is being damaged when it hits the chamber throat because it's not entering into the chamber straight. The other thing I'm noticing is the case rim is not making it completely up through the extractor tooth. It only seems to slide in about one third of the way. This happened with two different mags. Does this mean my extractor is too tight/short? If so, why are the majority of cases cycling properly? As irony may have it. Both of these cartridges were "R-P," but I'm not ready to read too much into that just yet. I'm going to straighten the extractor a bit now and see what happens. Thoughts?

It happens with any of the magazines, and they are all exactly the same. The mag springs are all pretty new as well. For some reason, the case mouth is getting hung up somewhere at random - leaving a nice dent in the case mouth. I suppose it is possible that the case mouth is occassionally hitting the top of the mag tube resulting in a dent to the mouth? This would explain the mouth damage at 6:00. If that IS the case, the fix should be pretty easy by just grinding a little metal off the magazine tube mouth. I guess I'll hand cycle a few hundred rounds and try to duplicate the problem. I am going to take a really close look at the mags tonight - which means I'll probably oversleep in the morning. My bullets are seated out far enough that I can crimp solidly around the lead bullet. I was even wondering if it's some of the brass? Then again, I have checked to see if it was only one brand of brass this was happening with, but no luck there either. I did trim some brass about a year ago, but that was all Remington stuff, and this happens with various brands. Of course, none of it is A- Merc. I am really hoping someone else out there has had this problem and solved it. I am focusing on the dinged case mouths as the most likely symptom to resolve the problem, but frankly - I'm still clueless. As stock, the barrel has been throated with the usual "half-moon" throat job by the factory. The recoil spring is .5lb over stock. I'm pretty certain it's not a spring issue though because the majority of rounds, unless the case mouth gets dinged, chamber really nice. I have gone in and polished the feed ramp very, very lightly, so it's original dimensions are still the same as stock. The breech face and firing pin hole look fine to me. In fact, I had recently sent the slide to Kimber to have them install the adjustable Meprolight Bomar clones. They also refinished the entire slide (inside and out) and it appears they did a great job. I've put about 2000 rounds through it since then. It's a darn accurate pistol, and it would be a great shooter too....if I could just get past this problem. Being an older Kimber, with their proprietary slide cut out dimensions, the shock buffs won't permit me to sling-shot the slide, so I don't use them. One of these days, I want to try out a thinner buff and see what happens. Yes. I use a Dillon case gauge. If it drops in there, I consider it a good cartridge. If not, I send it over to the S&W 625 department for proper disposal....ummm..I mean shooting. Almost everything meaningful to me on this pistol has been changed out by your's truly --except the barrel, frame, slide, trigger, ejector, extractor, and grip bushings, and all works and fits wonderfully - except for this occassional feeding problem. The Kimber premium trigger is really nice, so I kept that. I do need to tinker a bit with my Wilson beavertail. If I pull the trigger really really hard, the trigger bow will slip under the grip safety hand and the hammer will drop. I think a little peening of the safety hand will cure that.

Can someone help me diagnose the reason for my FTFs? The pistol is a Kimber 1911 (Gold Match). About the only things stock on this pistol are the barrel, trigger, frame, and slide. I'm using mixed brass. The loads are 4.8g of "Bullseye" with 200g Lyman cast LSWC #452630. I seat the bullets ".010 short of the lands, and crimp to ".470. I've also tried seating to different depths to no avail. The recoil spring is a 17lb Wolff. I am using "Springfield" stainless, single stack magazines with Wilson followers and springs. The mags "appear" to be formed properly for SWCs, but I haven't measured anything there. The FTFs happen randomly and I've factored out "limp wristing" while shooting. Here's what happens -- as best as I can describe it...... The cartridge will move up and out of the magazine and begin feeding into the chamber. That's where it stops. The angle of movement appears to be fine. For instance, the cartridge does not appear to be tipped up too high, or too low, to feed into the chamber. When I remove the cartridge, I ALWAYS notice slight damage to the cartridge case mouth at the 6 o'clock position. It's enough damage to turn the case into scrap. Right now, it seems likely that the cartridge case mouth is getting hung up someplace between the top of the feed ramp and the throat of the chamber. What confuses me is that, so far, I can't figure out the EXACT area where it's happening as the FTFs are few and far between. I'd estimate that I get one or two of these things in a 100 round shooting session. Now, I'm not 100% sure about this, but it also seems to happen more often after the first 30-50 rounds, but I stress the word "seems." I'm about ready to measure the lip where the feed ramp meets the chamber throat because it does look to be more than the specified 1/32" dimension called for in most 1911 books. To make matters worse, I am determined to feed SWCs. I cast my own to cut down shooting expenses since I get my lead for nothing. This problem is really aggravating -- especially at the informal IPSC matches I shoot for training each week. Before I go and possibly destroy my frame with sand paper or dremel tool. I thought I'd post about the problem here as a last ditch attempt for advice. If anyone can help out, I'd be truly grateful.

Come on over any time! After dinner we'll grind some corn cob and sit around the lead smelter and tell stories.

Oh well, I guess I'm gonna have to scrap the dishwasher idea after all. I don't want to poisen myself. I think I'll just go back to the air compressor.

I was getting tired of spending so much time cleaning out the dust and sand from my single stack magazines. Today, I was in the kitchen and decided to take them apart and put the tubes and springs into the dishwasher. I put them in the little silverware container and started up the dishwasher. Wow! It worked GREAT! The dishwasher got out all the crud and the mags are squeaky clean. My mags are stainless steel, so I don't know how this would work on something other than that.

You guys are cracking me up over here -- being more concerned with the possible motivation of the question, and it's possible application to matches, or even if it has any merit at all. I simply asked because it's an area I'd like to know more about. I was always taught, and still believe, that the only stupid question is the one you fail to ask. I guess that's not the case around here? I'll take it elsewhere from now on.

I've been researching shooting in darkness. I watched a great video by Bill Wilson recently where he demonstrates using 5.3g of VV N320 under a 230g Hornady XTP in a .45ACP. Compared to many (mostly factory stuff) of the other loads he shot in the dark, this load seemed to have the least flash. I called him up and found out that he was using Federal Primers. Now for my totally weird question: Has anyone ever experimented with different primers to see which ones produced the least amount of muzzle flash? I am thinking that they are all going to be about the same, but I'm not sure.

16 at a time? Hmmmm.....you'd need a pipe farm! Prior to making my pipe, I had considered just drilling holes in the bench for them to slip into. Now if I could just find a way to keep my allen head wrenches all together!

Well it would be Larry, if it were not for the two holes - top and bottom. The idea is to channel the pressure of an explosion up and down, rather than into the reloader's face. I believe it should function exactly as advertised in the event of a primer mishap - but I won't guarantee anything since I'm not a demolitions expert. I am always paranoid about primer detonations -- especially with "Federal" primers. Now I believe I can worry a little less about an accidental detonation causing serious injury to me -- although the floor and ceiling might look pretty bad.

Yup. It is for tidy, safe storage of the tubes -- hopefully eliminating some possible danger if one got careless. As you are aware, if one primer detonates in a primer tube, there is a good chance for a dangerous, chain reaction. Stick the PPTs in the pipe, and you've got little to be concerned about.

How many times can you say "Pesky Primer Pick-Up Tubes" really fast? Okay, so you can do it! Well, can YOU prevent "Crater Face?" Always wonder what would happen if your primer pick-up tubes go KA-BOOM? Have you stepped on one yet? Well, fear no more! I've got just the solution for you. Read on: Before: After: So here's how to keep you good looking: 1) Go to "Home Depot" and buy: a. 12" of 2" galvanized steel pipe - threaded on both ends b. A 2" galvanized steel flange fitting c. A 2" galvanized steel cap fitting d. 1 can "Rustoleum blue spray paint e. 4 x 5/16" bolts, 8 x 5/16" washers, and 4 x 5/16" nuts Like this: 2) Drill a hole in the cap. If you do not, then you are making what the BATF calls a pipe bomb. Instead of being a crater face, you will become headless. Like this 2) Wash all the parts with a "Brillo Pad" and let dry thoroughly. Then paint. Like this: 3) On the next day. Put the flange on your reloading bench where you want to keep your PPTs (Primer Pick-Up Tubes), and with a pencil, mark all the holes. Then drill them out. Make sure you drill a hole in the middle also. Otherwise, you are making what the BATF calls a rocket and you will blow a hole in your ceiling. Like this: 4) Put some masking tape over the middle hole. Two pieces should do it. Like this: 5) Now bolt down the flange with the bolts, washers, and nuts to your bench. Screw in the pipe, and put in your PPTs. Like this: 6) Screw on the cap and admire your work Like this: Now you won't ever be a crater face! Enjoy!

I just got 4 pounds of it from midsouthshooters.com